On the first nice day in March, I was having drinks with a friend who does centrist policy. It was a couple blocks from the Capitol and the chants of 5,000 people could still be heard ringing out after 5 p.m. against Michigan's new Emergency Manager law.

My friend's reasoning was this: "How's your collective bargaining agreement working out for you?" Fair enough. I've never been in a union, like the majority of workers in this country and Michigan.

But enough voters felt like Republicans were going too far in some key elections Tuesday and we saw the result. Voters aren't keen on surprises, and a lot of the GOP agenda this year in Michigan and other states never came up in the '10 election.

The news wasn't all bad for the GOP, however. Although they're down to a tied Senate in Virginia, Republicans still have the tie-breaking vote with the GOP lieutenant governor, so they've told Democrats to shove it. They also won a strict voting ID law in Mississippi.

But overall, not a great night to be an R.

"Shove it all together, and you've got the weakest off-year election for Republicans since 2007," observes Slate's David Weigel.

So what else can we learn from Tuesday? Unions are willing to spend big on elections and they can pay off in Ohio and Michigan. Everyone might have declared the movement dead in the United States, but they've still got some money and muscle.

The Michigan Education Association and its allies also were outspent 2 to 1 in the Scott recall and won (barely) anyway.

Democrats shouldn't get cocky over 2012 as a result (it's not in most of their DNA, anyway). But it might be a good time for Republicans to regroup and figure out what they did wrong and if they went too far.

Like that's going to happen.

The "Kill the MEA! Spill their blood! Eat their children!" mentality was still on full display on Wednesday from the GOP at the Capitol, however. The Michigan Republican Party could spend as much as it needs to recalling a couple of Democrats to ease the pain.

After all, self-reflection is for wimps.

Susan J. Demas is a contributing political columnist who provides opinion and analysis and reports breaking news on local and national issues from a Michigan perspective.